THUNDER BAY — Officials at Confederation College say the school’s Aviation Flight Management program will take just over half the students it usually does this coming fall.
Matt Bunn, the associate dean of aviation at the college told Newswatch the school usually takes 60 students for the flight management program, which trains students to become pilots. This fall, he said, they’re looking at accepting 35.
“The reason for that is to try and address the delay of the flight training with our current cohort of students,” Bunn said. “The reason for those delays does have a little bit to do with the hardships of retaining qualified flight instructors.”
However, he continued, there are also other factors at play.
“It's also a result of the pandemic which we're still dealing with even years later,” Bunn said. “And, of course, the Thunder Bay airport did have a major rehabilitation project on the main runway a couple of years ago which slowed us down a bit with our flight training.”
“So, all these cumulative things have impacted our flight training.”
Taking fewer students in the fall will allow for the college to catch up getting existing students their necessary time in the aircraft, he said; the hope, Bunn added, is to get up to full capacity in the future.
“It's really tough to do, but it's good for the students and the students that are in the program and are going to enrol in the program for this fall,” he said.
“It's going to allow us to get back within our footprint, graduate students on time, and then we can look at putting back into the program, adding the seats back up hopefully to 60, or maybe there's other credentials that we could offer that are beneficial to our graduates in addition to the commercial pilot's licence.”
No change is expected for the fall intake for the Aviation Technician Aircraft Maintenance program, he said.
On Thursday, the college held its aviation day, which consisted of a pair of sessions — one where existing students could network with a wide variety of industry representatives and another that functioned more as a general open house for people who want to learn more about the programs and careers in aviation.
It’s a good time to get in the aviation industry, Bunn added, as many companies are hiring, not only for pilots, but for many avenues of work.
“Lots of jobs — basically, if you want a job in aviation as a pilot or an aircraft mechanic, you're going to get it,” he said.
“There's lots of opportunity, of course — lots in Thunder Bay and lots regionally,” he continued.
“We actually have companies from Yellowknife here trying to recruit, companies from Manitoba and of course the armed forces who are placed all over the world and in Canada, so there's lots of opportunities locally and abroad.”